Splendid Garden Effects with Hardy Lilies. 
Were I restricted in iny garden¬ 
ing operations to the use of four 
species of plants, then, without 
hesitation, I should choose Hardy 
Roses, Lilies, Rhododendrons and 
Clematis. Lilies I should give a 
second place in importance, Roses 
the first; but if I consider results 
in proportion to labor and expense 
then Lilies should have the first 
place. And in every garden these 
four plants should predominate, 
should be relied upon for the grand 
effects, while a hundred hardy 
plants and bulbs, with the better 
annuals, would make a garden fairly 
entrancing from earliest spring until 
winter. Ivor should the tender 
bulbs be excluded, like the Gladioli, 
that give so much beauty for so 
little expense and labor and that 
can be as easily stored and kept 
during the winter as potatoes. I 
think the grandest floral effect I 
have ever seen was made by a large 
group of Auratum Lilies planted 
among Rhododendrons on the 
grounds of Miss Wolfe, at New¬ 
port, 1 \. I. The plants were six 
and seven feet high, and had on 
each stalk from ten to thirty mag¬ 
nificent flowers. The dark green 
of the Rhododendrons made a bold 
relief for the Lily flowers, while 
their grand size, and the stateliness 
of the plants made a superb effect 
at a long distance ; yet the perfect beauty of the flowers challenged the closest inspection. In striking contrast to this group 
of Lilies, on the same grounds, was, perhaps, the largest and finest example of carpet bedding in America, in which had 
been used, I was told, fifty thousand plants, costing annually twenty-five hundred dollars. Yet this remarkable bed, 
planted as it was with the greatest skill, did not win or deserve a tithe of the admiration lavished on the Lilies, whose 
original cost was only a few dollars. 
To get the best effects with Lilies they should be used freely, and now that the really finest varieties are to be obtained 
at prices not very much greater than those of bedding plants, they should be planted by the hundred, as bedding plants 
are ; and when it is considered that their first cost is their only cost and that they do not*have to be renewed annually they 
are really very much cheaper than bedding plants. 
The numerous fine varieties of Lilies, and their adaptability to different locations, make many uses for them in every 
garden ; in the hardy border, in beds, in groups among the shrubbery, among Rhododendrons and other evergreen shrubs, 
and even in the beds of Hybrid Roses, they will thrive and can be used with good effect. They can also be naturalized in 
the tall grass and by the brookside. But always they should be planted in groups, each kind by itself. I here give a list 
of the most desirable Lilies, with some suggestion of their uses, and I have named them in the order the varieties hold in 
my esteem, though I might more fairly have placed several kinds side by side, as it is very hard to decide which should 
have precedence. 
i. Auratum. 
This, undoubtedly, is the Queen of all the Lilies, and for size of flower and magnificence of appearance it has no 
superior. The colors and markings of this species are variable, and dealers have separated the varieties, giving each a 
